From July 21^st to August 2^nd, 2023, all eyes will be on the 5^th edition of the event called “Discesa a remi del Danubio” (Rowing Down the Danube), organized by the rowing club, Circolo Canottieri 3 Ponti, in Rome (an affiliate of the FIC-Federazione Italiana Canottaggio - Italian Rowing Federation), and backed by the fundamental contribution of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale. From July 21^st to July 26^th, the participants will have traveled a total of approximately 255 kilometers to Vienna. Once there, new crews will take over from July 28^th to August 2^nd, and they will travel from Vienna to Budapest. Besides Italy, the boats will row across three other nations: Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, traveling a total of approximately 600 kilometers on water.

Disabled athletes will also join the four crews, each made up of eight members and a helmsman. Their boats will be followed along the itinerary by the organizers and by Staff technicians –  for the first part of the regatta by Riccardo Dezi, Giulia Benigni, Antonio Schettino, and Catalin Blaj – in two supporting motorboats. It is precisely because of this inclusiveness through a sports event – inclusiveness in which rowing has long been a leader – that this endeavor has been backed, ever since its 1^st edition, by the fundamental support of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale. The President of the Foundation, Prof. Emanuele, who was a former rower, has chosen to sponsor the Circolo Canottieri 3 Ponti in 2023, as well, through this adventure that strongly evokes the values of which the Foundation is a promoter: the right to health, to well-being, to sports, and for everything that the “Rowing Down the Danube” event fully expresses.

Instead, this is the fifth time that Riccardo Dezi and Giulia Benigni, President and Vice President of the Circolo Canottieri 3 Ponti and 4^th-level European rowing technicians, will be rowing on the Danube. In the previous four years, the course gradually lengthened until reaching the 600 -kilometer “Great Descent” from Passau to Budapest in 2022. This year, they will be traveling along the same course. Starting from Schlögen, the crews will pass through the cities of Linz, Grein, Melk, Durnstein, Tulln, and Vienna for the first leg. On July 28^th, new crews will leave Vienna for Bad Deutsch-Altenburg to Bratislava, Gonyu, Komarno, and Ezstergom. On August 2^nd, the crews will then dock at the final destination of the “Discesa a remi del Danubio” event: namely Budapest. A regatta that certainly presents additional and unknown difficulties, but that the two technicians will tackle with their many years of technical experience (also gained in training throughout the years with both athletes and disabled athletes) and with the proven skills of the crews they worked with together.